General Practitioners

• Osteoporosis
• Arthritis
• Primary Care
  Additional genes found that are linked to cancer. A family history should be a part of any initial work-up of cancer, as well as helping primary care physicians determine cancer risk in their patients. While we used to only know a few genes that were definitively linked to increased cancer risk, there are now many … Read more »
• Emergency Care
• Immunizations
  Starting March 22, ADPH will extend eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations to include people age 55 and older, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the population defined as Allocation Phase 1c in the Alabama COVID‐19 Vaccination Allocation Plan which includes people age 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions which include but are not limited to the following conditions...

Internists

• Internal Medicine
  Hematology & Oncology Associates of Alabama’s physicians specialize in medical oncology and hematology. Each physician is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology. Cancer treatments often require treatment by multiple physicians in different specialties.  While we specialize in medical oncology, we work closely with specialists in other areas, including surgery and radiation oncology to help coordinate an optimal treatment plan. Our office offers a large amount of patient support...
• Bladder Cancer
  The American Society of Clinical Oncology named immunotherapy as the “Advance of the year”. There were many exciting developments, as you can see from some of our previous posts. There have also been exciting trials with immune therapy in bladder cancer, Hodgkin disease, liver cancer and head and neck cancer. These are especially exciting because … Read more »
• Kidney Cancer
  Immunotherapy 2.0 named clinical advance of the year in cancer care. A lot of our updates are about new indications for immunotherapy to treat many types of cancer. This past year, new indications were approved for treatment in melanoma, bladder cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer and kidney cancer. While immunotherapy does not work … Read more »
• Ovarian Cancer
  HOAA was well represented at the 2019 Taste of Teal Gala. The Gala is a fundraiser for Laura Crandall Brown Foundation, which supports ovarian cancer awareness and research. Click to learn more about the Laura Crandall Brown Foundation
• Colon Cancer
  Colon cancer screening with colonoscopies or occult blood stool tests is one of the most effective screening tools we have to detect early stage colon cancer.  Colon cancer usually evolves over many years from abnormal cells that initially form a “polyp” in the colon before they start becoming more aggressive and invading into the colon … Read more »
• Prostate Cancer
  Both prostate cancer and breast cancer often thrive on naturally occurring hormones (testosterone in males and estrogen or progesterone in females) that stimulate a cancer to grow. Therefore, treatments that block hormone production or utilization can be an effective way to fight these cancer cells. Hormonal therapy is a systemic treatment that can fight cancer cells throughout the body.
• Cancer Care
  Dr. Allen Yeilding and Dr. Elquis Castillo are pleased to announce that HOAA has been selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as one of nearly 200 physician group practices and 17 health insurance companies to participate in a care delivery model that supports and encourages higher quality, more coordinated cancer care. … Read more »
• Lung Cancer
  In lung cancer patients, it is important to test for “targetable mutations” in the cancer tissue. Targetable mutations are specific DNA changes to cancer cells that cause specific proteins to signal cancer cells to grow. These are important to test for because we have medications that turn off these proteins that are more effective than … Read more »

Endocrinologist

• Thyroid
• Thyroid Cancer
  In November 2018, larotrectinib was approved by the FDA for treatment of patients with solid tumors that have a neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) gene fusion.  NTRK gene fusions are most commonly seen in salivary gland tumors, soft tissue sarcoma and thyroid cancer.  Larotrectinib is an oral medicine that inhibits proteins encoded by the NTRK … Read more »

Radiologist

• Radiology
• Chemotherapy
  In general, chemotherapy is medicine that attacks dividing cells.  Cancer cells usually grow more rapidly than our body’s normal cells, so chemotherapies usually kill cancer cells while hoping to preserve our own normal cells.  There are many different types of chemotherapy that have unique side effects.  Most chemotherapy is IV, although there are some chemotherapies that we give as shots or pills instead.  We have an infusion suite at our office to give these medicines.
• Radiation Therapy
  There are many different approaches to treat cancer.  In our clinic, we specialize in “systemic treatments” of cancer that reach cancer cells throughout the body.  These systemic treatments are usually called “chemotherapy,” however, there are many different treatments depending on the characteristics of a particular cancer.  Other forms of cancer treatment include surgical resection and radiation therapy.  We work closely with physicians in both of these specialties to help develop personalized cancer plans that best treat and attack each person’s cancer.
• Radiation Oncology

Dermatologists

• Skin Cancer
  Update on Cancer Immunotherapy and Immuno Oncology The past several years have been a particularly optimistic period for immuno-oncology. The first approval of modern cancer immunotherapy was interferon-alpha in 1986 for hairy cell leukemia, and later for chronic myelogenous leukemia, follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma, melanoma, and AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma (1) Several other agents have been approved … Read more »
• Lesions
  Immunotherapy treatment with ipilumimab after resection of high-risk melanoma improves overall survival compared to no treatment. In high risk melanoma lesions where a cutaneous melanoma has spread to local lymph nodes, despite surgical resection, only about 45% of patients will not have the melanoma come back within 4 years. Currently, there are no great medical … Read more »